Urban Sketchers

Monday, 13 January 2014

Today, I was supposed to be at Art Group where I would be watching a DVD of portrait drawing. When faced with the decision of whether I should sketch out somewhere or sit inside watching a DVD, it was an easy choice to make. I chose to go to Transcona for a few reasons. One is that I've been attracted to a few scenes there; one of a Barley processing plant on Dugald Rd and the CN shops entrance plus my middle Artist daughter Jackie had the day off and lives in Transcona. She had suggested that I might like the cemetery on Dugald just past Ravenshurst.

Jackie had wanted to sleep in so I chose to go to the cemetery first. I missed it going down Dugald so I went down the perimeter highway to an access road and found that taking this road took me in the back way to the cemetery. I spent 10 minutes sketching a cut path of snow which had some nice bare mature trees, dark tombstones in the middleground and the perimeter high way with a nice line of grass in the background. I had my down filled gloves on but your fingers get pretty cold after a very short time. Once my fingers started to get cold, I sat in the passenger seat of my car and sketched the old door on a small brick building on the grounds.

The next stop was to Jackie's to have a washroom and coffee break. Jackie was game to come with me so we sketched together in old Transcona. We stood outside to sketch the Transcona Historical Museum and then sketched the CN Transcona Shops entrance from inside the car. This was my favorite. It is so interesting with the old railway style entrance building and the massive yellow steel structure that cuts sharply and diagonally through the shop yard. The sign for the yard contrasts sharply with the pale blue sky behind.

Today I chose to work with a Faber Castell Pitt pen and graphite pencils. I liked the combination. Using only pen would have made the drawings too busy plus using pen and pencil automatically created value contrasts. I also found that although it was too cold to spend more than 10 minutes outside at one time, it was quite warm in the car. The heat gain from the sun shining in through the windows was enough to keep you comfortable and warm. I will definitely do this again. Next time I would like to create some pastel sketches.

Tuesday, 7 January 2014

It's been too long since I sketched and posted here. We have had a particularly long stretch of unrelenting cold weather in Winnipeg which is much more conducive to hibernating indoors than heading out to sketch. Also, the Christmas holiday season with it's accompanying mayhem works against any creative interests. But ... it's now 2014 and it's time to shake out of the seasonal blues associated with weather and the holiday season.

The first Charleswood Art Group was yesterday and the planned activity for the handful of people that came out was to watch instructional art DVDs. I could have sat like a lump with my Starbucks latte but decided to pull put my sketchbook and sketch what was right in front of me. My fellow artgroup members sitting relatively still glued to the computer monitor made great subject matter. I started with sketching Rosanna, then I added Donna, then Jim and finally Monica. I continue to be amazed how easy things are if you can only just get started. I continued to add more line, tried to connect the figures in some way and finished with a bit of color. It was so much fun!

I have considered the idea of starting to sketch from the TV. If I'm going to spend so much time indoors and in front of the TV in the evening then why not have the remote ready to pause on a TV scene that grabs my interest. All that's needed is to have my "sketch bag" sitting right where I sit to watch TV and get started.